Personal computers (PCs) have become essential part of any business enterprise. It is impossible to imagine a modern office, regardless of its size, without one or more PCs. The corporate PCs are typically connected in a network, which enables secure communication and file exchange between PC users as well as secure access to the outside networks, such as the Internet. However, administration of a large corporate network, having hundreds and often thousands of PCs and other networked devices, such as printer, scanners, facsimile machines, mobile communication devices, is a complicated task for several reasons.
First, corporate networks are quite susceptible to security breaches and spread of malware. So, for example, it is enough for one PC to be infected with malware, the malware will easily spread to other PCs in the network. These security incidents may cause temporary malfunction or permanent disablement of multiple PCs, which will cause decline in productivity of employees, loss of confidential information, and expenses related to repair of infected PCs.
Second, a network administrator often cannot manage keep track of all PCs in the corporate network. As the number of network users, including local and remote users, temporary users, guest users, etc., steadily increases, network administrators face the problem of controlling user access to the resources of the corporate network. Before granting user access to a network resource, the administrator has to determine if user is allowed to access this resource. In a large corporate network, solution of this problem takes significant amount of time.
Accordingly, there is a need for automation of a process of administration of corporate network and controlling access to network resource to various network users.